Friday, February 11, 2005

Posted by
RFTR

Maybe there's a bigger problem, BillPolitical Wire pointed me to an article in which the WaPo quotes Bill Clinton on the internal strife of the Democratic party: "We've got to stop beating on each other and redirect our fire against the people we disagree with."

It sounds so logical, doesn't it? But there's a bigger issue at the base—they are arguing with people they disagree with. The Democratic Party, by making itself the party of inclusion for so long, has turned itself into a big circus tent, full of people who are likely to agree on maye one issue, maybe not even that. The centers of cohesion are vast, and the party is held together these days by little more than the fact that the Republican centers are different. It's gotten so bad that, in order to maintain its opposition-party status, the Democratic Party is even ceding unifying issues, like Social Security reform, that had been in its bailiwick.

So, you see, Bill probably should have phrased it a little differently, to reflect the fact that the Dems are in no way united, and do have fundamental differences among themselves—he just wants them to turn their mutual animosity onto a mutual enemy isntead of each other.